Blinded
by Darkford
Summary: AU where Connie is blind. Loosely follows main events, but there will be a lot of original work involved. Read, review, and enjoy. A spin-off based largely on my oneshot fic 'I can see'. Edit: Dropped due to lack of interest in fandom. Might continue, but don't count on it.
1. Bubble Buddies

Connie was blind.

Now, don't get me wrong, Connie was managing okay, but sometimes she got upset. She was always worried and anxious, worried that someone would find out, anxious that people would treat her like she was helpless or mock her or otherwise just think less of her for it. She had been taught that she needed to be the perfect daughter, always doing what her mother said, so that she could go to Harvard and become a doctor and lead a happy and successful life.

Well, how does a blind person become a doctor exactly? Connie wasn't sure. She didn't even know if it was possible. She just wanted to hide in a hole at the edge of the Earth because her mother hadn't even noticed. How could her own mother not notice that her daughter was blind? It didn't even make sense.

At first, Connie thought maybe it was temporary. She didn't tell her mother automatically, a residual effect from ten years of overprotective actions that resulted in her not having any friends; she'd lie to get by, knowing that the demands were too tight for her to comply to fully. None of them, apparently, were 'smart' enough or 'good' enough for Connie to be friends with. Or at least, that's what she felt her mother would say if she was being completely and utterly honest. She had instead simply deemed them 'inappropriate' and sent them away.

She walked down the stairs. She followed her muscle memory most of the time, but she knew for sure that there were fourteen steps. She counted them in her head - one, two, three - hearing her mother call her for breakfast right on cue - nine, ten, eleven - her father saying hello, waving back to him as she hopped down to the last step, trotting quickly into the kitchen and holding out a hand to steady herself against the table in the kitchen. She sniffed the air - today was toast with a side of blueberries - and sat down, brushing across the surface of the table until she found the knife and fork and holding them expectantly.

"Good morning, Connie," Priyanka greeted her calmly, the clink of the plate hitting the table sudden but expected. "Here's breakfast. Now, I've got to get going quickly, emergency call, but your father will tell you about your extracurriculars today. I'm heading out now, see you tonight." She didn't even hesitate to sigh to herself, knowing that when her mother said 'tonight', she really meant 'tomorrow morning, if you're lucky'. She felt her mother's lips brush her forehead, and then the thump-thump-thump of her rushing out the door marked the end of her communication with her doting parent.

She got up, not really up to eating more, and walked back into the family room. Her father was in there, almost certainly reading the newspaper from the ruffling sound of papers, and she cleared her throat.

"Father, what's happening today?" Connie inquired, making herself blatantly heard. He hummed a half-hearted response.

"Father?"

Silence.

"I'll be at the beach with my books if you end up caring." She stormed up to her room, grabbed the book she hadn't been able to read since she went blind, and felt the door, opening it slowly and closing it carefully behind her, feeling it to make sure she'd locked it right. She walked down the sidewalk, simply enjoying the breeze for a bit, before finally reaching the cliffs next to the shore.

She paused to feel the air against her face, playing with the hem of her summer dress. It would probably be rather picturesque, if she could see.

 _Ha, ha, ha. Very funny._

She kept walking, ignoring the noise around her. It was rather annoying really, all the cars and the chatting people on the street bothered her to no end. With them around, it was hard to focus on where she was going, and she always needed to know where she was.

Then she felt a bit of ground give below her. Looking down automatically, she forgot for a moment she was blind and groaned.

 _Why me?_

She was about to take a step back when the ground shifted again. What was happening? Why-

She was cut off by an ominous rumble and yelped, feeling the ground below her give way entirely. She grappled at the cliff behind her, but in her heart she knew it was too late. Her ever-sarcastic mind laughed at the pure morbidity of the situation.

 _Oh look, I'm going to die before my parents notice me or I have any friends. How nice._

She squeezed her unseeing eyes shut and waited for death to greet her... and was instead welcomed by an ethereal pink glow.

There was an 'oof' below her, and then a young, masculine yelp as the pink flashed behind her this time. She was on something... warm? And the rocks weren't crushing her to death, although they were definitely falling and hitting _something._ With a wince she gripped whatever was protecting her and mentally kicked herself for not paying better attention. The pink glow was still there, though it was in multiple places, the first being below her in an uncomfortable rocky lump and the second being behind her in a vaguely circular shape.

Why two pink glows had suddenly appeared in her void she had no idea, but she wasn't about to let it go anytime soon.

The sounds stopped, and for a bit all she could hear was her own shallow, uneven breathing mixed with the calm in-and-out of whomever she was pressed against. With a quiet gasp she hopped back only to hit something behind her and fall to her knees on the ground... which felt oddly spherical.

"Where- what's happening?! Why am I... what is this?!" she gestured wildly to everything within close proximity.

"Oh," said a cheery, young voice, "That's my bubble. I stopped those rocks from falling on you with it... uh, here, let me try and make it go away." He made various shuffling sounds as he tried to push away the pink barrier, which was slowly becoming apparent, until he finally stopped and sighed. In the short time she'd observed him, she'd figured out the most concentrated glow was from his chest. He was definitely the source of all the pink light.

"I need to get out of here," she cried, getting to her feet. "Don't tell me we're trapped?!"

"Uh, only for now!" He quickly reassured her, although the fact didn't reassure her at all. "We, uh, we'll roll it over to my house! That way we can ask the Gems for help!" He said this as if it was an irrefutable suggestion and began pushing at the side of the sphere they were trapped in. Without much else she could do, Connie decided to help him, brushing up against him just a bit so that she knew where he was and where he wanted to go.

"Look, uh, I know this is probably the wrong time to mention this probably, but my house is on the other side of the beach... it might take some time at this pace. I'm sorry." He sighed. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Connie took a deep, shaky breath and declined to comment on their situation. She was _not_ going to let herself fall back into her anxiety attacks anytime soon.

After this, there was a brief period of blissful silence, the waves rolling and the glowing pink sphere being pushed along from the inside like a human-sized hamster ball. Oh, if her parents saw her now they would flip...

Actually, maybe she could take advantage of this...

"What is this bubble even made of?" She asked, punching it and shaking her hand off. "It's, like, industrial strength."

"Magic," the mystery pink-navel boy responded easily, continuing to push the bubble along. "I can't control it very well though... Garnet says I still have a long way to go if I want to go on missions."

Connie's head filled with questions. _Garnet? Missions? WHO IS THIS GUY?_

 _BANG_ _._

She ignored the pain in her fist as she growled. "I'm tired of this," she hissed, punching the bubble again. "What's up with my life these days?! I must be the unluckiest person on the planet!"

She stopped when she felt a hand snap out and grab her wrist, though it quickly relaxed. "Hey, stop," he scolded, though his tone was friendly. "if you keep punching it, we'll roll into the sea."

She stopped punching things and instead replied sarcastically, "I wonder why I'm in this predicament."

The pink light around his chest suddenly dimmed, and the stabbing feeling in her chest prompted her to do something. She was _not_ about to let go of her light. "I, ugh, I'm sorry! I'm just... so frustrated. At the end of my nerves, you know? It's not your fault."

"No, I was the one who ended up getting us trapped," he retorted. "It was me, and I'm going to get us out of here, too."

She stopped trying, instead wiping away tears she wasn't aware of and calming herself down. If she could trust him, they'd-

POP!

"Finally! It worked!" he glowed like the sun in the corner of her vision. She stomped the ground lightly, feeling the sand beneath her sandals.

With a short nod, she said, "Thank you, I guess. I'd be a goner if you didn't trap me in that bubble."

"No problem!" He chirped back. "Glad to... help..." his voice fell into silence, and she felt horribly lost. What was happening? Why was he going silent?

"Uh, listen," he said, an edge of panic in his voice. "Can I... borrow that bracelet? Just for a moment." She looked down at the glowstick bracelet on her wrist, one she'd gotten at least a year ago. She was fairly certain it was a glowstick bracelet, but she wasn't actually certain.

"As long as I get it back," she agreed, holding out her hand.

He took it and said, "I'll be right back!"

She didn't move. How could she? She had no idea where he was or where he was going-

 _WHHHOOOOH_

She froze up, her body rooted to the spot as he ran off to her left and only a few seconds later a large green orb flew past her side, something scaly and unpleasant brushing past her shoulder. The Pink boy and the green orb danced in her darkness, until finally the green orb stopped moving around so violently. There was a deafening roar that caused her to cover her ears, an ominous _crash_ , and the green orb shivered a bit before falling still.

The pink boy wrapped the green orb in a pink bubble, and poked it, making it disappear. She paused, watching as the pink light bobbed its way over back to her, grabbed her wrist, and put her bracelet back on it.

"What just happened?" She asked faintly, not even trying to make sense of it.

"That was a corrupted gem, it was following us for a while now," he explained. "It wanted your bracelet, I think. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, you seemed pretty upset already and I didn't want to make it worse..."

"Thank you," Connie replied, a bit bewildered but nonetheless thankful. "I don't know what you mean with all this 'gem' stuff but... thanks."

"No problem!" he chirped happily. "Hey, what's your name?"

She blinked. "Uh, I'm Connie. Connie Maheswaran."

He hummed. "Nice! I'm Steven, Steven Universe. Nice to meet you!"

Connie smiled. "Nice to meet you too..."

"Steven!"

Connie turned to the source of the voice, and was shocked to see that there were four glowing orbs. The one that spoke appeared to be either the red one or the blue one, and a beige orb and a purple orb followed soon after.

"Steven, are you okay?!" Cried an uneasy female voice, this one coming from the beige orb.

"Yeah, Steven, why's the dock all busted?" The stout purple one inquired, approaching him from the side.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he eased, pushing them away gently. "I was protecting Connie! She was going to be crushed by the rocks so I used my bubble, but then I couldn't get it to go away and then there was a corrupted gem and then I poofed it!" He grinned. "Does this mean I get to go on missions?"

"I don't know, Steven," the beige one said uncertainly.

"He really was great," Connie spoke up, gaining confidence. "it was amazing! He made sure I was okay and then when the corrupted gem came he did all this wicked cool stuff to make it go away!" She stopped when she was met with silence and shrank back into her shell.

"Steven?" either the blue or red one said, the red one touching his shoulder.

"Yeah, Garnet?" He chirped eagerly.

"You'll come with us next mission. Good job." She noticed Steven's pink aura get a little stronger, and smiled. He literally glowed with happiness.

She felt the two orbs grip either shoulder, and with a start she realized they were the same person. "Connie?" It - Garnet - inquired.

"Yes, Ms Garnet?" Connie replied nervously.

"It's just Garnet... and thank you, as well." She felt a gentle pulse of warmth. "I'm glad Steven has a friend now."

Connie was about to explain that they'd only just met, but she stopped herself.

 _No,_ she thought, nodding along as Steven glomped her, making her feel warm inside. _Steven... is my friend. Only friends go to that much effort to protect each other._

 _I'll try my best to be a good friend too, Steven._

* * *

That night, Connie ran back into her home and hopped onto the sofa. She sat and listened to the TV for a bit, not expecting the door to creak loudly as her mother got in.

"Mom?" Connie inquired, shocked. "You're home!"

"I am?" Priyanka replied questioningly. "I said I would be, Connie." Connie paused for a moment, then felt her eyes heat up.

"You've never been home when you say you'll be..." she murmured, wiping away tears. "I... welcome home."

She felt her mother grip her shoulder. "Oh, Connie," she sighed. "I never _want_ to be late home. I just _have_ to be. I hope you understand that." She was wrapped in an awkward hug, that was far too short as her mother pulled away.

"Right, good night, dear. You've got to get back into the routine of sleeping regularly," she added with a twitchiness in her voice. Connie was fairly certain she murmured something along the lines of, "not that you should have gotten out of it in the first place..."

She smiled. It wasn't home - it probably never would be for her - but it was enough, at least for now.

* * *

A/N: Started with a short oneshot, and now it's a fic. At least there's an end in sight... I'll be writing this episode-by-episode. Enjoy the show everybody, and don't forget to Read and Review.


	2. Song

Connie listened attentively as Steven explained missions. Over the short time they'd known each other, Connie had come to rely on him to anchor her, being her beacon if she got lost. She still wasn't sure why she could see the pink gem lodged in his navel, but one way or another she was thankful for it.

He'd already asked why she occasionally tripped over things, and she'd simply told him that she was clumsy and daydreamed frequently. She hoped he bought it; she didn't want him to know. If he did, he'd definitely try and cure her, and if not he'd go to extreme lengths to help her. She didn't know why she was so opposed to it, but she wanted him to treat her like an equal, and after all, keeping a few more secrets couldn't make anything worse than it was for her.

"So now I get to go on the next mission!" Steven concluded, snapping her out of her contemplation.

Connie frowned. "Aren't you scared at all?"

Steven shrugged. "Garnet's got future vision," he explained, "so I'm certain that if anything bad was going to happen, she'd have already stopped me. Plus, I'm prepared!" He grinned and put his backpack down on the grass in front of him - she knew because there was a telltale _thump_ as it hit the springy green - and he pulled out his ukulele and began to play a little tune.

"Say, Steven, are you sure you should bring that ukulele?" Connie inquired worriedly. "I mean, do you think the corrupted gems will be purified by pretty music or something?"

"I dunno, maybe," he said optimistically. "It also means I can do... this!" He strummed the ukulele suddenly and threw the sounds into a fast-paced solo. Connie giggled lightly, clapping as the sounds stopped.

"Do you know any other songs?" Connie inquired, eager to hear more.

Steven paused, then admitted, "Only one I wrote myself."

"May I hear it?" She asked politely, smiling lightly.

His answer was a short strumming which quickly leaped into a short, jovial tune. He hummed along, eventually beginning to murmur some lyrics.

"We, are the crystal gems, we'll always save the day..." he licked his lips. "and if you think we can't, we'll always find a way..." he mumbled the rest, but Connie's sharp ears caught the adorable lyrics.

"It's a really pretty song," Connie said shyly. "I like it." Steven beamed at her - something she'd figured out from his gem brightening visibly - and she grinned back.

She suddenly heard Garnet behind them, her arms crossed. "Steven?"

"Yeah, Garnet?" he responded immediately.

"It's time for your first mission. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready!" he cried eagerly, getting to his feet.

"Then let's go."

The moment the words left Garnet's mouth, Steven grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. "Bye Connie! I'll see you when the mission is over!" he called, dashing off after Garnet, who was already descending back down the hill.

Connie waved at him as he left, stopping after a few moments and merely enjoying the air on her skin. She briefly opened her mouth to ask the time, but the words fell away quickly.

 _Oh right, Steven left._

Then it hit her.

 _Steven left. He's not here. Neither are the gems._

 _I have no idea how to get back home. Steven always walks with me. I don't even know what time it is.  
_

 _I'm lost._

She took a deep, shaky breath and told herself that Steven would be back. She just had to wait for him to finish his mission and then he'd come back and then he'd take her home. It would all be okay. He would, without a doubt, be back.

Her pessimistic thoughts ran wild for a few minutes until she finally got a hold on herself. She moved to lay down on the grass, but her hand hit something smooth and wooden.

 _Steven's ukulele._

She gripped it and pulled it onto her lap, sending a hand over it gently. She put it down and moved again...

...and promptly hit another smooth, wooden object, along with a stick of sorts.

She reached out in curiosity and picked it up, feeling it all over to get a mental image of it. It was smooth, and a bit like a guitar, but there was a little cushion at one end... and there was also the stick, with a string on it.

 _A violin,_ she thought, bringing the sight and the feel together. _It's a violin. Why is there a violin here? Did Steven leave it behind with his Ukulele?_

Deciding she had nothing better to do, she hooked the cushion in the crook of her neck and picked up the stick, trying to recall what little she gleaned from her violin classes as a young child before her parents pulled her out, having decided that tennis was a more noble pursuit.

"How did it go again?" she murmured to herself, trying to remember Steven's song. "It was, uh... 'we are the crystal gems'..."

* * *

She frowned as she played the song perfectly and in full for what must have been the hundredth time. When was Steven coming back? Would she be late home? She hoped he'd get back soon; she didn't even know if it was day or night any more.

Steven was just so important and special, really. To her, and to the gems, and to everybody. He kept protecting her, and what could she give? She wasn't anything more than a blind, helpless kid without him.

She put down the violin and hugged her knees in, humming gently.

"If I could begin to be half of what you think of me," she murmured, "I could do about anything." With a shake of her head she hummed the little tune she'd come up with, soon freelancing it on the violin quietly.

By the time she heard the footsteps behind her, she was playing a fully fledged song.

The sudden clapping as she finished off her fourth playing of the song caused her to snap around to face him. The quickly-becoming-familiar glow of Steven's gem made her smile in relief.

"Welcome back!" she grinned, putting down the violin and getting up. "How did the mission go?"

Steven hummed unhappily. "I... I'm just not good at anything," he murmured, flopping down on the ground. She flopped down next to him.

"No way! You're awesome!" She cried, poking him. He giggled lightly, but he still seemed less jovial than usual.

Connie sighed. "Look, Steven, tell me what happened. It'll make you feel better."

"Hmm..."

"Steven."

"Hrrn..." She could almost imagine the conflicted look on his face.

"C'mon, Steven, please?" she begged.

"Oh, fine." he sighed. "I tried to be real serious, but I fell and got covered in strawberry juice. Then I ran away from a friendly flock of butterflies... and then I accidentally got us all trapped in a dungeon..." He rubbed his neck. "I just mess everything up."

"Steven, everyone makes mistakes," Connie refuted, reaching out and finding his shoulder. Gripping it, she continued, "what matters is that you can fix the problems created. You're back in one piece, yeah? So I'm sure you found a way out."

"Well, yeah," he admitted, "I figured out the exit was below us... and got the gem," he replied, a bit less depressed.

"See? You completed the objective, so it's fine." She nodded firmly. "They couldn't have done it without you."

Steven laughed, a sweet, wonderful thing that made her whole body tingle. She shook herself and asked, "Hey, what's with the violin?"

"I wondered when you'd ask," he proclaimed, sighing in relief. "It's... a gift. For you. So we can play music and stuff." He pushed it into her hands, and in silent appreciation she ran her hands over the fine wood and well-tuned strings.

"Thank you," she choked out, not really sure why this meant so much to her. Her parents bought her countless presents every year; why did this one mean so much more to her than any and all other presents she'd ever gotten? "I'm sorry, I got bored and started playing it..."

"What was the song you were playing?" He inquired suddenly. "Can you teach me?"

"It's... a solo," she began hurriedly, not sure how it would work. "I.. uh..."

"It's okay," He allowed amicably. "We'll just make another song! A song we can play together!"

Connie didn't have an argument, and so she instead lifted the cushion to her neck again, nestling herself comfortably in it. He grabbed his ukulele audibly and started poking out some tones on his ukulele.

* * *

Connie stopped playing their song abruptly, looking briefly up at the sky.

"I should probably head home soon," she commented, turning back to Steven. "We can continue working on the song tomorrow."

"Aww, okay." he grumbled, the _thump_ of him slinging his ukulele over his back combining with his tone. He grabbed her hand silently and they walked back together.

Connie smiled quietly to herself, thinking over how Steven was sometimes.

 _I can't believe you can't see your own worth,_ she thought, gripping his hand more tightly for just a moment. _It's me who's useless, not you._ Her mind wandered to her little song from before.

 _If I could begin to be_

 _Half of what you think of me,_

 _I could do about anything..._

She waved goodbye, a strange pang going through her chest as his footsteps became quieter and quieter until she couldn't hear them any more.

 _I could even learn how to love._

For once, she headed back in her house with a smile on her face and a song in her heart.

* * *

A/N: I'd personally like to believe that the ending song is from Connie's point of view, although I know it's probably just ambiguous. I just _had_ to include it somehow.

As always, please remember that it means a lot if you leave a review! I appreciate every one.


	3. Lion Shopping

Connie gaped at the scene before her.

It had started out innocently enough; she'd wanted to get to Steven's house so she could share some jam biscuits with him, and had been greeted by chaos and yelling.

She winced behind her glasses, glad she had them for once, although losing her eyes probably wouldn't make much of a difference. She had the sense to keep her mouth shut against the powerful winds, her breath growing shallow as she tried not to take in any sand. She skidded down to the beach just as the winds began to wail more quietly, and by the time she'd gotten up and reached the home of the Crystal Gems, it seemed like everything was back to normal.

"Steven? Steven, what's happening?" She called, following the pink light blindly. It shifted towards her, and she slowed down to try and get a feel for what was happening.

One of the corrupted gems, as she had learned they were, was presumably in Amethyst's hands; that explained the sand and high winds. One of the gems must have gotten loose. What confused her was the bright pink residue in the shape of a lion, striding alongside Steven.

"Oh, hi Connie!" Steven beamed at her. "We were just sorting out the desert gem. Oh, this is Lion. He helped me!" She turned her attention to the pink blob suspended in her void, and from the looks of it it was studying her, too.

There was something that made her twitch irritably about this so-called 'Lion'. She found herself wrapped reluctantly in glowing pink fur as the creature sniffed her, its snout colliding with her forehead.

She backed up, ready to defend herself, but after a moment the Lion seemed to reach a state of indifference and he plopped down, looking very pleased with himself - or at least, that's what Connie imagined, what with how he was lying there.

"So, picnic?" She decided, ignoring Lion for the time being and holding up a basket of bread and jam.

* * *

It had been a nice day of duets at the top of the hill once more, but every time she looked down at the beach to where Lion was, she felt a strange tingling in her chest, like there was something more to the strange creature. Finally, Steven noticed, and he paused from his playing.

"You're worried about Lion." It wasn't a question. Connie nodded numbly.

"I guess I am... he doesn't quite feel right to me." She didn't want to explain how he was the first recognizable shape she'd seen in upwards of a year.

"He's okay, I know he is," Steven replied, smiling. "Oh, oh! Let's go play with Lion! Then I'm _sure_ you'll see he's a great friend!" Connie sighed at Steven's kind, naïve behaviour and followed him, picking up his ukulele for him and following him back down the road to the beach.

Lion seemed indifferent to their arrival, although she noticed him shift slightly, acknowledging their presence. Steven ran up to him and dropped himself on Lion's side, letting out a punctuated 'oomf' and a soft giggle that never failed to send her spirits soaring. She cautiously joined him, eventually getting the courage to rest in the soft pink fur, which felt much like cotton candy.

They spent the rest of the day building sandcastles and interacting with Lion. As Steven left, she waved, feeling a bit lighter.

* * *

"Connie?" Her mother called, breaking her out of her focus. She was listening to a recording of her class to study, the recorders being gifts from Steven.

"Yes mom?" She yelled back, trotting down the stairs. She felt a few bills and a list being thrust into her hands.

"Could you go get these for me?" She asked, and Connie responded with a weak nod. How could she disobey? It would only lead to her mother knowing or her being grounded, and Steven would undoubtedly come over to find out what happened if she was. That would be a disaster. So instead, she walked out the door and went down the street aimlessly, hoping she got the right shop.

Eventually, she realized she'd left without her glasses. _Not that it matters,_ she thought pessimistically, not even bothering to go get them. _I'll just... work with it._

"Hey, little dudette," She heard, and she spun around at the sound of Sour Cream's voice. "you walked straight past me. For a second, I thought I'd unlocked the secret to invisibility."

 _How random,_ she thought, continuing to look at him. _How... useful._

"I haven't got my glasses on," Connie offered. "which reminds me... could you read this out to me? I can't without my glasses." She felt through her handful of paper for the right one and handed it off to him, and he took it, pausing for a moment.

"Oh, sure," he responded. "Milk, eggs, bread, and pasta. Looks like you've run out of meal material." He handed it back to her, and she thanked him. She knew where to go from here if she wanted that sort of stuff.

"Say, didn't you pass the shop a while ago?"

"Er, I didn't see the sign," Connie fibbed quickly, internalizing the deep breath she took. _No, Connie! NO ANXIETY ATTACKS IN THE STREET!_

She quickly walked back to where she'd come, ending the conversation before she became too embarrassed to think and her mind went fuzzy.

* * *

While she knew the general area pretty well, the insides of large shopping malls were confusing and alarmingly hard to work with. She couldn't work by sound - there were too many rattling carts and otherwise disruptive noises - and while she could just go around feeling all the items, she would have no idea whether something was a packet of pasta or a packet of hot dogs. She sighed and decided to work with what she had.

She walked around until she felt particularly cold and began walking along, sniffing quietly to make sure she wasn't in the meat section (how would she explain manhandling fresh meat?) and reached out, carefully tracing her fingers over the products until she came to some large bags. she lifted one with some noted effort, decided that she couldn't get in trouble since the specific kind wasn't specified, and continued along.

The eggs were also easier, since she could feel for the distinct packaging and since they were near the milk, and she took some, placing them in a basket she'd found. It was convenient that most supermarkets kept their baskets near the entrance.

When she reached the aisle she was fairly certain had the pasta in it, she was lucky enough to overhear someone talking about the different brands, and she quickly picked up a few from it, thanking her luck once more.

The bread was to be simple; sniff for what smelled like a bakery, and then ask where the whole-wheat bread was. When she reached the in-store bakery, however, she found herself getting anxious.

 _No, nonononono. Calm, calm. You're fine._

She sagged in relief when someone asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes," she replied eagerly, "where's the whole-wheat bread?"

"Oh, it's over there," the woman responded, and by the way she sounded it seemed that she was pointing. Connie panicked and glanced to her left.

"Er, no, the other way, next to the sign," she continued, and Connie got a familiar sinking feeling in her gut.

 _NONONONONONO-_

She was floating, time was slowing, she felt the crushing weight of what could only be described as her fear given a face and name. She felt her knees hit the ground but she couldn't move. It was all too much-

Something soft brushed up against her, huffed, and promptly took her basket.

She took a few deep breaths and turned, allowing pink to flood her void. She slowly lifted her hand and patted his head.

"What are you doing here, Lion? I still need to get bread." She inquired after a moment, continuing to stroke him, though more to reassure herself than for Lion's benefit. He rumbled in a distinctly friendly manner and began pushing her gently.

Not really wanting to disobey a lion, she allowed herself to be nudged through the supermarket, eventually landing her in front of a display. She reached out and felt for what was there, and sighed in relief at the rectangular feel of bread. Pulling it out and placing it in her basket, she turned and began to search for the checkout, but Lion nudged her further in another direction.

When she reached out her hand, there was a cool, rounded jar. Shrugging, she put it in the basket, and grumbled in frustration as Lion deemed it necessary to push her all the way to the checkout.

"Are you sure that Lion is safe?" The checkout man inquired. Connie continued to place her things on the conveyor belt, indifferent.

"He's peaceful." She shrugged. "How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, twenty-one fifty-five."

She shrugged, handed him all the money, and left, Lion and food in tow.

* * *

Connie grumbled in frustration as she walked, pausing every so often to send a glare in Lion's direction. It was about ten minutes later that she finally popped.

Turning around, she cried, "What?! What do you want?!"

Much to her surprise, the Lion began tugging on her skirt, leading her away, and more out of curiosity than anything she allowed herself to be pulled down the street by a lion. She was surprised, therefore, when she opened the door to a shop and recognized the place as the Big Donut.

She walked in, and immediately Lion moved over to where she was fairly certain a frozen treat was. She watched as he comically pushed his snout up against the door of the iced treat box, staring firmly at it.

"Excuse me," she called to where she was fairly certain the desk was, "Could I get one of these?" She heard the chipper 'sure!' that was unmistakably Sadie and the _clak_ of the door as it opened and closed. Connie surfed through her pocket and found the remainder of her money, handing it off to Sadie and taking what felt like a Lion Licker.

How humorous.

She waved goodbye and stopped a few blocks away, watching as Lion stared intently at the treat. With a shrug she gave it to him, his jaws opening gently to accept the tribute, and she was finally allowed to move on in peace.

When she went through the door, her mother wasn't there. She heard a rustling sound, presumably her father reading the paper, and dropped off the purchases in the kitchen, dashing up the steps to her room with the forced extra purchase, a jar of... something. She reached her room and sat down on her bed, twisting it open with a grunt of effort and carefully dipping a finger inside.

It felt like peanut butter, but when she brought it to her lips for a taste test, the taste wasn't peanuts at all. It was chocolate, with a dash of hazelnut, which she found she rather liked. She realized suddenly that her mother would have her head if she caught sight of it, and screwing the top on firmly, she shoved it under her bed for the next time she went on a picnic with Steven.

 _And knowing him_ , she thought cheerfully, _it'll be soon, too._

* * *

A/N: Finally an update!

I apologize for the wait, I've been trying to get a summer class going but the teachers keep backing out at the last minute... it's really annoying. I've barely had time to work on anything between that and a house-guest, but I managed to get this done. Hope you enjoyed! Digi-fistbump to whomever guesses what Lion had Connie buy! (Digi-istbumps have no monetary or sentimental value - they're just nice.)


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